FITNess" project: Food packaging open courseware for higher education and staff of companies

The FITNess [1, 2] collaborative program, coordinated by ACTIA (French Network of Food Technology Institutes), began on 01/09/2017. Eight universities and research centers from five countries: Croatia (UZAB-PBF), France (ACTIA, LNE, AGROPARISTECH/INRA, AGROSUP DIJON), Germany (TUM), Portugal (UCP), Spain (CSIC) have joined forces to create and power a (free) online platform offering a comprehensive curriculum on all aspects of food packaging (food science and technology, packaging technology, materials science, toxicology, material transfer, regulations and risk analysis, modeling, etc.).). The tool also covers emerging topics such as recycled, biodegradable and biobased materials, safe food packaging by design, optimal packaging design, life cycle analysis, etc.

Based on the SafeFoodPackaging Portal projects (versions 2 and 3), and the RMT ProPackFood Training platform, an ecosystem has been developed to host hybrid content (static and dynamic documents and courses, and simulation software). The platform [3, 4] is free and rich in educational resources and content, built in the style of a Wikipedia-type online encyclopedia, aimed at the food packaging community for initial and continuing training purposes.

Content is divided into eighty-five modules with two levels (basic and advanced). They are designed to be accessible to a wide range of audiences, from students and researchers to food industry professionals. They include standardized lectures (MOOC format) tested in five universities, quizzes, practical guides, webinars.

The FITNess platform participates, along with the other tools, in spreading concepts that are important to the European Union: consumer and environmental protection, support for innovation in the agri-food sector.

Five training sessions were organized in five participating countries (Germany, Croatie, France, Portugal and Spain) to test the platform in front of a real audience gathering students, researchers and industrialists.

The project, featuring a high level of quality, has also been awarded the "Good Practice" label [5] by the Erasmus+ France/ Education Formation agency.

The FITNess platform has also been nominated in the "ECONOMIC & SOCIAL PERFORMANCE" category as part of the ITAINNOV 4^th edition 2022 competition [6]. (Re)-discover the project in 2 min: video Grand Angle, the FaceWebcam Pitch